[fic] The Things We Can't Control - Chapter 58 ~Problems and Favors~
Title: The Things We Can't Control
Author:
prettyorianna
Pairing: Akame. Others to be added later.
Rating: NC-17.
Genre: crime drama au
Beta by: my cat Gemma. okay, seriously, nobody
Disclaimer: I don't own KAT-TUN, any of its members, any other JE people. I write this for fun and for other fans of these fine folks. But don't steal my plots, mmkay? I put a great deal of time into them except for when I'm randomly spastically spitting words onto a page. But I value those too...
Summary: Two criminals with vastly different styles meet by chance one day. They immediately clash but is that all they'll ever be? How much is fate and how much choice? And how will their meeting change the world around them?
Author's Note: I know you guys are dying to find out what's up with the twins and so I figured I wouldn't make you wait. Here you go and don't kill me. Oh, and after I get some more housework done, I'll get to work on the next update. If it goes well, might have a second update for you tonight. If not, it'll be up tomorrow.
BANNER BY DESHISORABA!! THE MOST AWESOME BANNER EVER AND I WILL FIGHT ANYONE WHO DISAGREES!
Warning: This gets graphic often occasionally, containing at the very least foul language, character death, nefarious crimes, rape, etc etc.
The Master Posts:
On my journal - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_ Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the akame_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the je_kamenashi Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the kattun_fanfics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
On the jin_fics Community - The Things We Can't Control Master Post
Chapter 58 ~Problems and Favors~
Aoi looked awful. He’d obviously been crying and his eyes were so tired like he hadn’t slept in weeks. He had bruises and scrapes all over both arms and at the wrists and probably more under the shirt Kame just couldn’t see.
It was heartbreaking seeing him like that.
“Oh, Aoi…” Kame murmured into the phone. “What happened to you?”
“I got into a bit of a fight…” he confessed. “I… well, see… we were… we… I mean, Akira and… Oh, god… Akira!”
He broke down right then and there.
“Aoi, what? What happened? God, don’t cry… um… damn… talk to me! Aoi!” Kame said worriedly into the phone. “Please!”
“He’s hurt! They hurt him bad, Kame! He… they don’t know if he’s going to wake up or not…”
“What?” Kame stared in shock at Aoi through the glass. “How? What happened!?”
“He did it for me. Defending me. I… keep getting into fights when he’s not there with me so… I’ve spent a lot of time in the infirmary or solitary. That’s… that’s why I couldn’t see you like I wanted. If I wasn’t hurt, I was in trouble. Believe me, I wanted to… But now…” and Kame could tell how hard to was for Aoi to keep speaking. He was all but sobbing into the phone, “Akira… he showed up. Tried to keep them from… hurting me. Only he didn’t know the others were there, hidden. Hell, I didn’t know. We… it was a setup. And now… he’s… He’s been in the infirmary for a week and a half and he’s not getting better and he’s not waking up and they say he might never wake up and I’m… I’m all alone… I can’t fight them off myself. There’s just too many of them to fight off.”
Now Kame was crying, too. It was just like Akira to jump in, try to save his brother. “Why are they attacking you? I mean, I figured you might get hassled but once they saw you weren’t weak, weren’t going to roll over and take their harassment, they’d stop messing with you. With both of you.”
“Even other criminals hate those who rape children. They said…” but Aoi trailed off, still sniffling from the crying. “Please, you don’t need to hear it. Just…”
“Aoi! Just tell me! Please!”
“They said…” but he trailed off uncertainly again, looking Kame straight in the face with tear-stained eyes. “Please don’t make me tell you… You’ll only worry more…”
“AOI! TELL ME!”
Ever so quietly he responded with, “They said we needed to understand just how those boys felt. How… how it feels to be… raped… again and again… and not be able… to stop it. Not be strong enough to… to stop it. To be helpless…”
“Oh, Aoi…” Kame cried, “Oh, no… can’t… won’t the guards…”
“The guards know. They think we deserve it. They turn the cameras off, blame it on old wiring. Oh, Kame, I’m so scared he won’t wake up. I’ve never been separated from him this long, not in our whole lives. We… we need each other. Especially now.”
“Why didn’t Akira tell me?” Kame was suddenly angry. “I’ve been here every month asking about him, asking about you. He wouldn’t tell me. He just said you were both fine. He lied to me. He kept lying to me. This is not fine! They’re hurting you!” Oh, god… what if Akira never woke up? What then? “Did you know? When you two changed your pleas, did you know?”
“Kame…”
“Did you know?”
“We expected some problems, yes. But as you said, we’re not weak. We can fight, defend ourselves. Just… we didn’t expect so many… too many…” and his eyes sort of went dead for a moment. “Too many…”
“Oh, Aoi…”
Aoi shook his head and said, “Don’t worry about me, Kame. I’ll make it through somehow. I’m just scared for Akira. They hadn’t been able to get him, see, and I was at least thankful for that… so they did this instead. But he doesn’t seem to be waking up so I’m scared. And… and there’s something else…”
“What? What is it?”
“Yurina. She’s being released next week. But we’re in here. We… we can’t meet her, bring her home. Please, Kame, I’m begging you. Do this for us. Go get her. Bring her back to the apartment. Watch over her for us! We can’t trust anyone else to do this. You’re the only one we trust, Kame. We… we love you. Both of us. I know, how we were… at first… was different. But you’re like a brother to us now, Kame. You’re family to us. Please, take care of her.”
He’d never seen Aoi beg before.
“I love you both, too. You’re really the only real family I’ve ever known. Of course I will, Aoi! When next week?”
And Aoi told him all the details, where to meet her and that he’d already called her to make sure she knew he was going to ask Kame to get her.
“Do you have a picture?”
Aoi shook his head. “Not here. But if you go home, we have a whole drawer full of them. The one by the fridge.”
“Oh, right. I forgot about those. You know…” Kame said, “I can bring you some pictures, next time I come visit. I’ll take new ones of her.”
“I’d… really like that. Thank you so much, Kame-chan.” He gave a soft sigh and his best attempt at a smile. “I’m… I’m relieved, somewhat, to know she’ll be taken care of. I just… I need Akira. I don’t know how to… without Akira…” and he was crying again.
But their time was up and they were leading Aoi away, oh, god… that was a very bad limp of a very specific and entirely too familiar kind.
Too many, Aoi had said.
Just how many had…
No. There was nothing he could do about it and knowing wouldn’t change that. There was absolutely nothing he could do for either of them, except what Aoi asked. Take care of Yurina.
So that’s what he’d do.
Though he never thought he’d see the day either Akira or Aoi would fall apart like that. They had always seemed so indomitable, like no matter what happened, they could never be broken. But now Akira was in a coma and Aoi was left in such confusion and suffering… how was he supposed to handle those continued attacks, those fucking criminal violating him like that? How was Aoi supposed to deal with that and what happened to Akira?
God, he hoped Akira woke up soon. He… he wouldn’t die, would he?
Since there was nothing he could do for them, he had no choice but to just go home.
The ride home seemed to take so much longer than the ride there had. Maybe it was just because his heart was so heavy. All those times Akira told him it wasn’t his fault, that it was their choice… and he supposed it was, but if he’d have let Komatsu have him at the club instead of freaking out like he had, they never would have had to make that choice.
And he’d let the whole damn prison fuck him if it could turn back the clock and spare Aoi from going through it himself. Hell, he’d let the whole damn city! Unfortunately, life didn’t work that way…
He went straight to work when he got back to the city. He got there a bit early but it was better than crawling the walls at home.
His boss Ito-san at the grocery store could tell something was wrong but it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell him the truth so he merely said, “Some friends of mine are having a rough time recently. It’ll be okay. I’m just worried.”
“You’re a sweet kid, Kame.” Ito-san smiled at him. “Polite. Not many like you in the neighborhood or, really, anywhere these days, it seems. You’re smart; you’ll find a way to help your friends. I’m sure of it.”
Kame smiled back at him. “You’re very kind, sir. Thank you.”
After work, he went home and the first thing he did was get the photos from the drawer next to the fridge. Flopping down on the couch, Kame started looking through them.
They all looked so happy. Yurina was a really pretty girl with a beautiful smile that made her eyes shine even through a photo. There was so much love in the pictures. Kame could really understand why the twins had gotten so pissed at Ryuichi for what happened to her.
It had taken Kame a long time to be comfortable enough to ask the twins what, exactly, had happened. When he did, the story they told him was that Yurina had been out with a few friends and that Ryuichi was an acquaintance of one of her friends. They’d gotten someone to buy them beer despite being underaged and apparently after they’d had a few of them Ryuichi had propositioned her. She’d turned him down.
Only the next thing she knew, they were at this drug dealer’s house and she had no idea how they got there. Her friends were gone and it was just her and Ryuichi and the drug dealer and his goons. The whole experience, the twins had told him, was still fuzzy in her head, flashes here and there but what had happened was that the cops raided the place while they were there. Ryuichi and the drug dealer both managed to slip out but Yurina and the others were arrested.
Yurina had gotten in trouble before a few times, for fighting. Nothing really serious. Kid stuff, right? And nobody really believed she was selling drugs. But it didn’t matter. They wanted to show they were tough on drugs and she was high at the time (Ryuichi had drugged her beer, it seemed, which was why her memory of it was so fuzzy and, though she denied it rather forcefully, the twins were convinced he’d sexually assaulted her when she was in that state). She got sentenced for an absolutely ridiculous three years on the notion she was there to buy cocaine in order to sell.
The twins had tried pulling any strings they could but ultimately the only thing they were able to accomplish was to pay a few select people to keep an eye on her and make sure she was safe. They’d had to be content with that.
Kame hadn’t thought about Ryuichi in a long time… yet another bad person, corrupting and destroying the world around him. He hadn’t meant to kill him, honestly, but he had a hard time feeling bad about it.
Oh, there were the photos from his sixteenth birthday! Everyone was smiling and Kame thought he looked rather embarrassed in some of the pictures. They’d all made such a fuss over it. He couldn’t have known that, one year later to the day, it would all fall apart. That most of the people in these pictures would turn on them and that the twins would be…
Be hurting… so badly…
A wet drop landed on the photo in his hand, followed by another and then another. “Akira! Aoi! I’m so sorry…” and he clutched the picture to his chest like it was the most precious thing ever and just cried.
The week passed slowly but then it was time.
Meeting her was a strange combination of thrilling and awkward. He’d long been curious what a kid sister of the twins would be like. But considering his role in what happened to them, he wasn’t all that sure Yurina didn’t blame him, too, like he blamed himself.
She wasn’t smiling, not like in the photos he’d seen of her. Not that he thought she would be. No, she just looked relieved to see him, like she wasn’t sure he was actually going to show.
He walked up to her and introduced himself.
“I heard a lot about you,” Yurina finally said. “From Akira and Aoi. Aoi said you’d come.”
“It’s really an honor to meet you.” Kame gave her a soft smile and the two of them walked to the bus stop together and as they went, they continued chatting. Mostly unimportant stuff but surprisingly quickly they got over their awkwardness and Kame had to admit, he liked her. She had a good heart. He could see it, like her brothers.
When they got back to the house, he made her some bacon because, well, bacon makes everything better.
Right?
And he knew she loved the stuff.
But after dinner, the whole energy of the room changed. She seemed… nervous. When he asked her about it, she just gave a small laugh and, scratching the back of her head, said, “I just have somewhere I gotta go. F-friends I promised to see. I’ll be back in a few hours, I promise. So don’t, you know, worry.”
“Do you want me to go with you? This isn’t a good neighborhood for a girl to walk around by herself at night!”
Yurina glared at him. “Okay, first of all, I’m a woman, not a girl! I’m almost eighteen, aren’t I? Second, I can take care of myself. I know how to fight. So, thank you, but no thanks!”
She stormed out and all Kame could do was blink a few times in surprise.
But he couldn’t help but worry. She hadn’t said where she was going, exactly, and he knew far more about the dangers of the neighborhood than comfortable thanks to his massive information gathering. And when she didn’t show back up till two in the morning, he just had to wonder what she’d been up to.
Kame had moved back to the couch and left her a note on the table telling her that she should take the bed. It really was more her place than his, technically, and what sort of gentleman was he if he didn’t give up the bed?
He pretended to be asleep when she got back. She looked… stressed.
Should he pursue this?
On the one hand, she was right. She was almost eighteen and perfectly capable of making her own decisions and living her life the way she wanted. Yurina didn’t owe him a damn thing (though he was pretty sure the reverse wasn’t true), not even an explanation. But something was wrong. He could feel it. And she was the twins’ sister. He promised Aoi.
Yes.
Yes, he’d pursue it.
If something bad happened to her, he’d never be able to face Akira and Aoi again and, really, hadn’t he done enough damage to their family?
The next morning, at breakfast, he said, “Wow, you must have gotten in really late! I see you got my note about the bed? I mean, the only dresser is in there so I have to go to get my clothes, but I’ll always knock first. So, how was it seeing your friends again after so long?”
Yurina’s eyes darted around with more than a slight bit of panic in them but she took a deep breath and finally responded with, “Oh, you know how it is. Friends.”
“Hm…” and Kame sighed. She was obviously lying. But he wouldn’t. “To be honest, I don’t know how it is. I’ve… Akira and Aoi were the first decent people I’ve met in my life. They saved me.”
“Funny… Aoi said the same thing about you when I talked to him a week ago.”
A week ago? That couldn’t be right. “Even after all that’s happened to him?”
Now Yurina’s gazed snapped to him and all the evasiveness she was just displaying was gone. “To Aoi? He told me Akira still hadn’t woken but what about Aoi?”
Oh, god… he hadn’t told her? Not that Kame could blame him. It wasn’t an easy thing to talk about and he probably didn’t want his sister to worry, but… “If he didn’t tell you, he must have had his reasons. Please, don’t make me tell you…” he begged, though his blood chilled at the realization he’d just used the same exactly words Aoi had said to him last week.
“Kame! Please! He’s my brother! I have to know!”
“The… the other prisoners have been… hurting him,” he finally said in a low voice.
Blinking, Yurina asked, “How? Hurting him how? Is he getting into fights? Even after what happened to Akira? So stupid! I swear I’m going to ring that scrawny little neck of his so tight his dragon tat will scream.”
“It’s not… like that.”
“Then what?”
“Please, Yurina, can’t you just trust me when I say you don’t need to know?”
“Maybe I’ll start with your scrawny little neck!” she growled at him. “Tell me!”
So fierce… Yurina was very passionate when it came to her brothers. He could relate. “R-rape… He’s been raped. I’m not sure… how many… but more than one…”
“Oh, no…” and she was staring at him, shock written all over her face. “Oh, god… Aoi! Why didn’t he tell me?”
“It’s not something that’s easy to talk about…” he said softly.
Yurina was shaking. “I know that. I know that…” Her voice was bitter-sounding. But then it was like what he said fully sunk in, because she suddenly asked, “You, t-” but she caught herself and continued with, “It’s happened to you before?” instead.
He didn’t like to talk about it, but she was the twins’ sister and deserved an answer. With Akira and Aoi in prison, all he and Yurina really had were each other. They had to stick together. “My dad pimped me out since I was really young. And when I finally escaped and made my way to Pearl Street, it wasn’t much better. Ryuich-”
But he stopped at her sharp intake of breath. “Ryuichi? You’re friends with that… that…” and she looked more and more angry with each second.
“I was not friends with that self-centered, opportunistic punk! He took advantage of me because I was new on the streets and I didn’t know better than to not follow him to the alley!” he shot back. With a snarl, he added, “Well, he won’t be doing that to anyone ever again. He won’t hurt anyone else!”
“He’s… he’s dead?” Now she was crying. “Please, tell me he suffered. Tell me he begged for his life. Please, tell me yo… uh, they made him sorry for anyone he’d ever hurt! For hurting me!” she sobbed. Yeah, he agreed with the twins. Even though she’d denied it at the time, he was pretty sure Ryuichi had raped her when he’d drugged her. It was why he drugged her; apparently he couldn’t just force her around their common friends so he’d gotten clever to get her separated from them. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination by any means, not after what he’d seen around the stroll or his own experiences with the kid. Ryuichi just took and took… but no more.
Not sure exactly how to handle a sobbing woman, Kame snatched the blanket up off the couch and sort of wrapped it around her. Kneeling in front of her, he took her hands in his and looked up to her face. “I wish I could tell you those things. It was over so quickly and it was an accident. Er, that’s what I heard. He can’t hurt us anymore.”
“Thank you!” she whispered. “Thank you… Er, for the blanket, I mean.”
Kame didn’t respond. She wasn’t a stupid girl. She realized he was the one that had killed Ryuichi. But she wasn’t going to say it and he wasn’t going to say it and that would work.
After that morning, she was a lot friendlier towards him. Not that she’d been unfriendly, just… reserved.
Though he hadn’t forgotten about how late she’d been out and how she still evaded his every attempt to subtly lead the conversation in that direction.
When they both retired for the night, Kame resolved to save the problem for another day.
Yurina didn’t give him that option. She had gone to bed and Kame was quite sure she had no plans to get back up since she’s put on pajamas. But then, maybe twenty minutes later, she came creeping out of the bedroom in street clothes and she looked… she looked scared.
Kame pretended to be asleep but once he was sure she wouldn’t notice, he snuck out after her. He’d promised Aoi to take care of her and by all that was holy, he would do it.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The story continues:
Chapter 59 ~Another Day, Another Task~
A/N: Poor Aoi... He's really lost without Akira. I mean, he's not weak, physically. But against overwhelming odds... And even if they were leaving him alone, he'd be lost. It's the longest he's ever gone without his brother.
I hope Akira wakes up.
And, hey, now Kame's met Yurina, the Kizuna member he's known the longest. But what is she up to... Whatever it is, it's got her tied in knots.